Jack Ryan, the man who made Barbie a household name in the 70's, was a full blown sex addict for a penchant for tall blonds in heels. Surprised? Meh.
From Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel:
Ryan's friend, Stephen Gnass, confides to the author: "When Jack talked about creating Barbie . . . it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert . . ." Ryan took calls at Mattel from a madam and patronized "high-class call girls to streetwalkers," including a "very thin and child-like" hooker. The book claims that Ryan "somehow rationalized that he was the only man in her life" until he was diagnosed with gonorrhea.
Meanwhile the man that Ken doll was named after, the son of Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler, turned out to be gay after years of embarrassment from having a figure bearing his name with no genitalia. The irony of Mattel now suing Bratz Dolls is not lost on anyone.
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Wasn't Ryan married to Zsa Zsa Gabor?
Ruth Handler, the founder of Mattel, came up with the idea for Barbie and directed Jack Ryan her head of Research and Design to engineer the doll. Handler had been trying to get her designers to come up with an adult doll for years. On a trip to Europe she came across a prototype, a German doll called Bild Lilli. Handler didn't know that the Lilli doll was a sex toy, but she probably wouldn't have cared. When she got back to Mattel she handed Ryan a Lilli doll and told him to take it to Japan and figure out how to get one made for Mattel. Handler also had the idea of giving Barbie, named for her daughter Barbara, a couture wardrobe. It is also true that Ken was a closeted homosexual, but most stirring is what Ruth and her husband Elliot did when they learned the truth. At a time when many parents rejected their children with AIDS, Ruth sprung into action to help Ken in every way.
My book BARBIE AND RUTH (Harper/Collins) coming out in February is the first biography of Handler, an amazing entrepreneur as well as the creator of Barbie.
Robin Gerber